OSNews

Don't try to upgrade your existing PC from a previous version of Windows, it will prove very expensive (especially of your time) even if it is actually even possible:

http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2009/10/22/our-windows-7-special-of...



http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1558769/gartner-pushes-win...

Ouch.

For an update of dubious value, that is a significant outlay if one has a number of users.

First the poster above was most likely talking about his/her personal PC which cost nowhere near $2000 to migrate to Windows 7. The average cost of a upgrade to Windows 7 for home users will be the cost of a OEM copy of Home Premium since Win 7 uses less resources than Vista and does not require significant upgrades.

Next the second link is the Inquirer and they are hardly a reliable source of information on anything related to technology. The Inquirer is nothing more than a technology gossip rag.

Since fewer than 1% of people (eg. geeks, enthusiasts) actually do upgrades from one OS to another -- and instead get their OS preinstalled when they buy a new machine -- this is a non-issue for the vast majority of people.



First, that estimate is based on a projected cost for businesses, not consumers. Second, businesses can't run XP indefinitely. XP is reaching its end-of-life support timeline and, so, businesses are going to ultimately have to incur some kind of migration cost, regardless of which OS they migrate to. Like everybody else, most businesses get their OSes preinstalled on new machines, and then depreciate those assets over some fixed time period. It's not a question of IF but WHEN they will migrate. Third, future OSes aren't going to make migration costs magically disappear. Fourth, these costs don't factor in the use of virtual machine technology for keeping older applications running.

Edited 2009-10-23 18:59 UTC

Really? Gartner's broken out the crack pipe again, then, especially in IT environments.

Microsoft provides some nice tools:

1) User State Migration, to backup the profile(s) to a server.
2) Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to customize, image, and deploy sysprep-style images.
3) GPO or SCCM based application deployment.

So, backup the user profiles, wipe and re-image the machine, reinstall the applications automagically, and restore the user profile.

That covers 95% of my user base right there, at about 45 minutes to an hour per machine.

As for home users, I wouldn't recommend upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 anyway. Vista to 7 shouldn't be too bad, but XP is just too wild and unmanaged to make a direct upgrade safe.